That is pretty funny.
Is Deep Space Nine racist?
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In any given episode America could be represented by the Federation and/or it's adversary. The UFD is usually an idealized and more perfect America. Some of it's "foes" represented the less perfect aspects.
I saw the episode "Sanctuary" not too long ago on the H&I channel. While watching that ep, I couldn't help but think about the current Syrian migration situation to Europe as well as the debate about immigration in general.
The matters of race (species), bigotry and nativism were clearly in the forefront of the story. A quick recap: the Skrreean people from the Gamma Quadrant were looking for a new home world, and they thought they found it, namely Bajor. The Bajorans offered a lot of sympathetic words to the Skrreean's plight, but ultimately the Bajorans refused to allow the Skrreeans to resettle on their planet.
The Bajorans gave an apparently legitimate reason for their refusal. The Skrreean leader got disgusted with the Bajorans' words of sympathy because the words rang hollow. The Skrreean suspected that the real motive for the Bajorans' refusal was something else, close mindedness and nativism.
That episode originally aired over two decades ago and it still has relevance today.
The matters of race (species), bigotry and nativism were clearly in the forefront of the story. A quick recap: the Skrreean people from the Gamma Quadrant were looking for a new home world, and they thought they found it, namely Bajor. The Bajorans offered a lot of sympathetic words to the Skrreean's plight, but ultimately the Bajorans refused to allow the Skrreeans to resettle on their planet.
The Bajorans gave an apparently legitimate reason for their refusal. The Skrreean leader got disgusted with the Bajorans' words of sympathy because the words rang hollow. The Skrreean suspected that the real motive for the Bajorans' refusal was something else, close mindedness and nativism.
That episode originally aired over two decades ago and it still has relevance today.
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I find that to be true with many DS9 episodes. And stuff like Paradise Lost/Homefront and Past Tense 1 & 2 feel more relevant today rather than less.
I think the talk of DS9 presenting outcasts/rebels of alien/non human cultures as the good ones is a little oversimplified if not misleading.
Worf being on the outs with the Empire is not why he was an admirable character that was an asset to the station; it was because he's a person with personal integrity and acted unselfishly. Same as Martok, and to a lesser degree various other Klingons.
Nog's journey isn't applauded merely because he doesn't follow tradition, but because he's doing what personally makes his life worthwhile. A similar thing happens with Rom stepping outside the role of "idiot brother" and using what talents he has in an environment where they're worthwhile.
Garak is an outcast ostensibly aligned with the heroes, but he loves Cardassia more than any other character in the series, and is selflessly devoted to it. That devotion to the state is presented in a fairly nuanced manner too; admirable but also keeping him blind to its deeper flaws until basically the finale.
And the Federation is not immune either. Sisko's clashes with elements like the Maquis policy, the status of Bajor, and how the station should be run often painted the picture of a group that is not the end all be all of enlightened 24th century thinking. In other series it was often the ideal, in this show it was admirable perhaps, but very flawed.
Honestly the takeaway I always got from DS9 was that while there is a value in following the traditions of one's culture and deeply caring about it, letting it define one's life and restricting potential is a mistake; doubly so if you refuse to acknowledge its flaws. Even Worf's keeping of the ideals of the Klingon way vs others' shallow interpretation of honor is eventually shown to be flawed unless he's willing to put that view into action and confront the corruption actually going on with the Empire. Bashir is arguably more devoted to Federation ideals than any other Starfleet crew member and after forced to see the ugly reality of things like Section 31, fights spiritedly against it.
I think the respective fates of the main characters bear this complex take too. You have some left to improve their own cultures (Odo, Rom, Garak) those who have evolved as people but keep to their ways (Kira, Quark), those who have wholly embraced other societies (Sisko) and even those like Nog that have found a middle ground of taking the best elements of the worlds they inhabit.
Worf being on the outs with the Empire is not why he was an admirable character that was an asset to the station; it was because he's a person with personal integrity and acted unselfishly. Same as Martok, and to a lesser degree various other Klingons.
Nog's journey isn't applauded merely because he doesn't follow tradition, but because he's doing what personally makes his life worthwhile. A similar thing happens with Rom stepping outside the role of "idiot brother" and using what talents he has in an environment where they're worthwhile.
Garak is an outcast ostensibly aligned with the heroes, but he loves Cardassia more than any other character in the series, and is selflessly devoted to it. That devotion to the state is presented in a fairly nuanced manner too; admirable but also keeping him blind to its deeper flaws until basically the finale.
And the Federation is not immune either. Sisko's clashes with elements like the Maquis policy, the status of Bajor, and how the station should be run often painted the picture of a group that is not the end all be all of enlightened 24th century thinking. In other series it was often the ideal, in this show it was admirable perhaps, but very flawed.
Honestly the takeaway I always got from DS9 was that while there is a value in following the traditions of one's culture and deeply caring about it, letting it define one's life and restricting potential is a mistake; doubly so if you refuse to acknowledge its flaws. Even Worf's keeping of the ideals of the Klingon way vs others' shallow interpretation of honor is eventually shown to be flawed unless he's willing to put that view into action and confront the corruption actually going on with the Empire. Bashir is arguably more devoted to Federation ideals than any other Starfleet crew member and after forced to see the ugly reality of things like Section 31, fights spiritedly against it.
I think the respective fates of the main characters bear this complex take too. You have some left to improve their own cultures (Odo, Rom, Garak) those who have evolved as people but keep to their ways (Kira, Quark), those who have wholly embraced other societies (Sisko) and even those like Nog that have found a middle ground of taking the best elements of the worlds they inhabit.
I don't know if DS9 is racist. I found Voyager to be racist with Thomas Eugene Paris, a blonde man (blonde was very popular in 1990s) with a love for "The Past" with too many privileges on Voyager.
The casts of all the programmes could be a little more diverse. This includes space aliens and people representing other parts of Earth, not just U.S.A. Federation is located in U.S.A. which implies that in Star Trek's future The U.S.A. took over the world, ... and with ENT there could and should have been more people from other parts of Earth.
Also The United Federation Of Planets isn't supposed to be "U.S.A. Has Taken Over Earth And Now It Wants To Take Over The Galaxy." because The United Federation Of Planets was co-founded by The Vulcans, and The Vulcans had warp drive first. It really should be portrayed as The Humans joining The Vulcanians' Fleet.
One thing I would like to see is that the half of the background characters Vulcans, half the background characters be humans, and half of each group have pale skin while half of each group have dark skin. As for The Admirals, especially at Headquarters, many of them should be Vulcans. Vulcans appear to have influence, according to the rant from the angry Klingon at the beginning of Star Trek IV. He said they are "Intellectual Puppets", but I think he meant "Puppeteers".
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Exactly. Unfortunately.
The Federation Council meets in San Francisco, but the President's office is in Paris. Presumably, all member worlds agreed to the locations. http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/United_Federation_of_Planets
Hardly a total US takeover of Earth.
Of course they agreed. Humanity discovered the Space Warp.
America takes over the galaxy with that dreadful twang of theirs. The Brits are there too with their nasal haw-di-haw accent but are losing space to the twang and occasionally the beautiful melodious Irish brogue can be heard. But defo it's America that's calling the shots in Trekland.
He said puppets and meant it. We can debate how the 23rd century Federation was represented to or meant to be interpreted by 20th century human audiences, but there's no debate how the Klingons of that era saw it. To quote Azetbur: "If you could just hear yourselves. 'Inalienable human rights.' The very word is racist. The Federation is nothing more than a 'homo sapiens only' club."
^ The Klingons accuse the Federation of being racist? They're one to talk. 
No really, they're quite diverse. You just can't tell because you're a racist Earther.^ The Klingons accuse the Federation of being racist? They're one to talk.
Ah yes, perhaps you could point out exactly where we saw a member race of the Klingon Empire OTHER than the damn Klingons, then?
They maybe one to talk but if a hypocrite is telling the truth, then he's still telling the truth.
(Frankly those scenes annoyed me myself. A very crude way to inject tension. And even if the Feds are "racist", they'd at least be smart enough to lose the term "human rights".)
(Frankly those scenes annoyed me myself. A very crude way to inject tension. And even if the Feds are "racist", they'd at least be smart enough to lose the term "human rights".)
The truth is the truth, regardless of where it came from.
Chekov used that term in the movie, it was his opinion, its not as if he was quoting from the Federation Constitution which is more likely to have 'sentient rights' to cover all beings, since not every member is a 'humanoid' (another racist descriptor used in the franchise).
Sentient rights should be the term or something akin to that and human rights shouldn't really be in common usage at all. Opinion or not, Chekov sounds completely peculiar when he brings it up.
Chekhov's attitudes are always presented as being peculiarly provincial. He has a deep sense of Russian pride. There's nothing wrong with being proud of one's heritage, but it is problematic that Chekhov is proud to be Russian, Scotty is proud to be Scottish, Spock is proud to be Vulcan, and Kirk (the markedly American captain) is proud to be . . . human. There are important exceptions ("The Omega Glory"), but too often in Star Trek, American is presented as human-standard and everything else is presented as a variation.
I think the instinctual response to this problem is to fill up the franchise with more aliens (which is okay) and more humans from other countries (which is better), but I think the best response would be to represent the Americans more particularly and diversely, so that they stop looking like Hollywood's monolithic standard against which all else compares. In this respect, Sulu was and remains an important reminder of the rich diversity found everywhere.
I think the instinctual response to this problem is to fill up the franchise with more aliens (which is okay) and more humans from other countries (which is better), but I think the best response would be to represent the Americans more particularly and diversely, so that they stop looking like Hollywood's monolithic standard against which all else compares. In this respect, Sulu was and remains an important reminder of the rich diversity found everywhere.
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